Urban Economist - National Consultant: Investment Planning and Prioritization in Damietta

Result of Service The result of service will be a comprehensive diagnostic analysis of the " Investment Planning and Prioritization Dynamics for Kafr El Bateekh and New Damietta cities."

Work Location Cairo, Egypt

Expected duration Part-time for six months

Duties and Responsibilities Organizational Setting: UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. It is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system.

Background: UN-Habitat and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlement development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.

Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1978 to address urban growth issues, it is a knowledgeable institution on urban development processes. It understands the aspirations of cities and their residents. For forty years, UN-Habitat has been working in human settlements worldwide, focusing on building a brighter future for villages, towns, and cities of all sizes. Because of these four decades of extensive experience, from the highest levels of policy to a range of specific technical issues, UN-Habitat has gained a unique and universally acknowledged expertise in all things urban. This has placed UN-Habitat in the best position to provide answers and achievable solutions to the current challenges faced by our cities. UN-Habitat is capitalizing on its experience and position to work with partners to formulate the urban vision of tomorrow. It works to ensure that cities become inclusive and affordable drivers of economic growth and social development.

In October 2016, at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – Habitat III – member states signed the New Urban Agenda. This action-oriented document sets global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities. Through drawing together cooperation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors, including at all levels of government as well as the private sector, UN-Habitat is applying its technical expertise, normative work, and capacity development to implement the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 – to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Urbanization is a key driver of development. Hence, sustainable planning and governance of urbanization are crucial to accommodate the rapid population growth, empower cities to optimize the value of urbanization, and ensure even development, inclusion, and equality. Rapid urbanization presents a unique opportunity to lift millions out of poverty when managed sustainably. However, inadequate urbanization management, which doubled with rapid population growth, has adversely affected the quality of life, leading to a lack of adequate housing and increasing inequality. These conditions contribute to diseconomies (e.g., congestion, pollution, displacement) that negatively affect overall city prosperity, efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness over time.

UN-Habitat in Egypt: Established in 2005, UN-Habitat Egypt Programme has provided technical support to national counterparts on a wide range of urban issues. Adopting an integrated approach, UN-Habitat Egypt has supported reforming and improving urban planning and management through three main sub-programs: urban planning and design; urban policies, legislation, and governance; and urban basic services and mobility.

Urban Policy, Legislation and Governance Programme: Egypt's Urban Governance, Policies, and Legislation Programme tackle the multi-dimensional urbanization context with special attention to urban management, urban planning, and urban economy. All stakeholders are empowered to engage and play their expected role(s). The Programme is working with all stakeholders and on different levels to find new appropriate, realistic, and context-driven ways of ensuring that the urbanization processes provide acceptable spatial standards and services. The Programme is also working towards enhancing the capacity of relevant actors in reforming the legal and institutional framework governing urban development, promoting the empowerment of local government, enhancing land tenure security, establishing processes for participating and inclusive planning process, enhancing local economic development social entrepreneurs. The Programme provides legislation enhancement and policy development support on the national level to replicate and scale up all of its successful interventions.

Urban Planning and Infrastructure for Migration Contexts Programme: UN-Habitat is partnering with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to improve access to reliable services and socio-economic opportunities for migrants and refugees in urban settlements. The Urban Planning and Infrastructure in Migration Contexts (UPIMC) programme will focus on activities that develop a common understanding of the issues affecting cities, towns, and neighborhoods, mapping provisions and gaps in public infrastructure services in coordination with humanitarian interventions.

The Programme will support municipalities hosting displaced populations in Jordan, Egypt, and Cameroon. Cities in these three countries have been selected through full consultation with SECO and UN-Habitat country representatives. The Programme will foster multi-sectoral collaboration between UN-Habitat, national and local governments, humanitarian actors, development banks, and local communities, including displaced populations in the selected cities. Preparing urban profiles for the selected vulnerable neighborhoods will enable the development of shared visions and prioritized interventions that improve living conditions to be identified, agreed upon, and potentially funded. The scope of work will also ensure significant contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting the selected cities and neighborhoods to become increasingly inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

This Programme will address the critical challenges in supporting vulnerable groups, including refugees, in urban areas through integrating them into overall urban development processes, considering the Humanitarian-Development and Peace/Triple Nexus. The Overall Programme aims include: - Supporting municipalities to mainstream inclusion challenges into spatial/ urban analytics and urban infrastructure investment planning. - Conducting activities that will go beyond a pure planning stage by supporting the prioritization of infrastructure investments and their linkage to financing. - Benefiting migrant communities and urban dwellers in general with better quality of life and better access to economic opportunities.

UN-Habitat's Project Team in Egypt seeks to hire an Urban Finance & Economy Consultant with experience in the local context to support the urban finance component of the project.

Reporting Line: The consultant will work closely with the Urban Governance, Policies, and Legislation Programme and under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager, to fulfill the following tasks:

Duties and responsibilities: The consultant will undertake the following responsibilities for the selected governorate/ areas (Damietta Governorate: Kafr El Bateekh and New Damietta cities): a) Review of national, regional (Economical and planning regions) and governorate level plans within the boundaries of Kafr El Batekh and New Damietta and/or of influence on them( General Bureau and New Cities plans, sectorial ministries and IFIs, etc.), to get initial insights on planned projects, the identified strategic outcomes, and objectives - 10 days

b) Identify all capital projects (sectors are identified in the UPIMC template) in the reviewed plans and the municipal/national investment budget (chapter six) within the boundaries of Kafr El Batekh and New Damietta and/or of influence on them - 10 days

c) Identify responsible authorities and stakeholders accountable for each project sector delivery within the municipality and develop the schematic understanding of these stakeholders' interactions at different lifecycle stages for planning and delivery of projects to ensure efficient data collection and knowledge of project implementation. This should entail identifying the patterns of requested investment projects by local authorities and what is being approved and financed by the central authorities. This should feed the latter in assessing the ability of local authorities to identify and respond to local community needs - 5 days

d) Review of IFIs and external donors' investment pipelines - Sourcing planned projects in Damietta governorate, focusing on Kafr El Bateekh and New Damietta City. This should entail a trend analysis to detect sectoral or any other patterns in the funded projects. - 7 days

e) Review and validate the projects scoring framework (to be provided by UNH) to reflect the actual economic outcomes of the governorate, as well as the community, needs to take into account the consultations done with the stakeholders (scores definitions for each objective and sub-objectives) to be utilized during the visioning and action planning phase of UPIMC - 5 days

f) Develop and finalize the project scoring to ensure suitability to national and local contexts - 5 days

g) Score planned projects once against local needs and later against UPIMC objectives and identify the gaps between the demand and supply in the planned investment- 10 days

h) Develop a standardized capital investment list as per the UN-Habitat template - 6 days

i) Validate + Finalize the capital investment list with relevant stakeholders - 7 days

j) Estimate the desired capacity/service level and scale of investment required to address gaps (SDF method) and have the projects differentiated by time spans (short, medium, and long terms)- 5 days

k) Identify the spatially targeted packages of investments and individual catalytic investments to prioritize – 10 days

l) Conceptualize, in terms of pre-feasibility studies, the new projects proposed in UPIMC to address key infrastructure capacity/service gaps - 10 days

m) Produce and deliver a "Technical Conclusions and Strategic Spatial Recommendations" report to UN-Habitat – for 6 days

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in urban economics, economics, Business Administration, statistics, or any related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience: Four years of relevant practical experience in Egypt's economic geography, investment planning, or local economic development with working knowledge of Egyptian economic statistics and data is required. Previous work experience with international organizations or NGOs is an asset. Publications and research records are an assets.

Language: Fluency in both oral and written English and Arabic is required.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.